Serbia Is Sixth Oldest Country In The World

Source: Srna News Agency

With 17.4 per cent of the population older that 65, Serbia is the sixth oldest country in the world, the organizers of the International day against the abuse, discrimination and neglectance of the elderly persons stated.

About 1.3 million Serbian citizens are over 65 years old and the main problem they are faced with is poverty, the president of the Serbian Red Cross Dragan Radovanovic said.

“All the demographic projections say that the precentage of the elderly persons will increase for one third by 2025, when they will make 22-27 per cent of the population” Radovanovic explained.

By then, a one quarter of the population will be over 65 and the numer of those over 80 will triple.

At the list of the demographicaly oldest countries in the world Serbia takes sixtx place, after Japan, germany, Italy, Finland and Bulgaria.

According to the Serbian Red Cross survey, 32 per cent of elderly persons had been subject to some kind of violence, discrimination or neglectance, and 12 per cent had experienced more than one way of abuse.

The most common was verbal abuse which was experienced by 11.2 per cent of elderly persons who took part in the survey.

The original article in Serbian can be found at vesti-online.com